May Day

So I went to the May Day rally. Rallies are 100 percent fun! I met these guys with cool t-shirts and some other guy from the mid-west who was a disgruntled former Coors employee who was the only person I could imagine that spoke German. He had the best sign in the march. IT WAS NEATO!

Anonymous 1

I noticed you have a t-shirt that says “powered by frijoles,” am I saying that correctly?Yeah.

What are ‘frijoles?’
They’re uh – they’re beans.

Do you eat a lot of beans?
Uh – I do my fair share, probably no more than anybody else though.

Are they really the magical fruit?
Um – I wouldn’t know, what do you think?

The more you eat them, the more you toot, right?
I don’t know.

Um – (long pause) – Are they – um – political beans?
I’ve never heard of those.

Neither have I.
Than why would you ask?

I don’t know -. well – because.
Okay, that doesn’t make any sense.

I often don’t make any sense, even when something as important as this does … do you think there’s such a thing as liberty beans?
I don’t know, is there?

Well, there’s freedom fries.
I guess – yeah, I don’t know maybe that’s something you could market, I haven’t heard of them yet.

That’s a good idea, you could make money off of that.
That’s your idea, I wouldn’t want to steal it.

No, you can do it, I’ll give it to you.
That’s okay.

You sure?
Yeah.

 

Anonymous 2

What are you here for?
Well, I’m here in solidarity for those whose rights would be violated by the passage of this bill.

Is the Joker in solidarty – ?
No, that just happened to be the shirt I put on today.

Oh, okay.
But it is kind of festive.

Is the joke – ?
The joke is not on anyone, per se.

Is Batman against immigrants?
I don’t seem to recall anything on his part that would indicate that, but maybe.

He is the ‘Dark Knight’ so that means he’s wearing black clothes. So –
So are you associating him with some sort of para-military or something?

Maybe.
Perhaps there could be.

And the Joker is so much more fun.
But he’s got like a maniacal side too.

He does.
But I think it’s hard to draw clear-cut moral lines.

And put it into this context.
Right that’s quite a transition we would be attempting.

It’d be fun though.
It would.

 

Anonymous 3

Moegen Sie Coors Bier? (Do you like Coors?)
Coors Bier ist scheise. Ich trinke gern brewpub Bier. (Coors beer is shit! I like to drink micro-brew.)

Ist deutsche bier besser als amerkanishe bier? (Is German beer better than American beer?)
Nicht unbedenkt, ich trinke gerne- wie kann man sagen- Brewpub Bier. Amerkanishes – uh – commercial beer. (Not especially, I like to drink microbrew – how can one say – brewpub beer, American beer – uh – commercial beer.)

Kein…uh… commercial beer. (Not – uh – commercial beer.)
Kein kommerzielles Bier. (Commercial beer.)

Was sagan dein Bild? (Was does your sign say?)
Mein Bild sagt , “Arbeit ist Scheise” aus. (My sign says, “Work is shit.”)

Warum ist arbeit scheise? (Why is work shit?)
Arbeit ist scheise, weil ich lieber zu hause bleiben und uh – bier trinken. (Work is shit because I’d rather stay home and uh – drink beer.)

Ich auch. (Me too. )
In letze Bundestagswahl in Deutschland gab es eine Partei, das war die Anarchiste Pogo Partei und ihr Motto war, Arbeit ist Scheise”. (In the last German election there was a party, that was the Anarchist Pogo Party, and there motto was “Work is Shit.”)

Das ist ein gute ‘Phrase?’ (That’s a good ‘phrase?’)
Gute Sprach, ja. (Good ‘quote’ yes?)

Und du hast auf dem Bild, die kleine Puppen, wie GI Joe, was machen die GI Joe’s ? (And you have on your sign, the little dolls, like GI Joe, what are the GI Joe’s doing?)*
Sie zeigen eine Szene, die sich vom Pomono in Californien abgeschpielt hat, das ist das zwar, ja? Wo ein Amerkanische Soldaten nach Hause gekommen ist, und ein Polizist hat ihn erschossen.
Der Soldat hat gesagt: ,,Ich bin vom Militaer”
Und der Polizist hat gesagt, ,,Steh auf! Du Schwein!”
Und der Soldat hat gesagt, ,,Ich stehe auf! Ja ich wohl, ich stehe auf!”
Und hat der Polizist im trotzdem tot geschossen.

(They show a scene, being played itself out in Pomona in California, that’s it there. Where an American soldier came home, and a policemen shot him.
The soldier says: “I’m in the military.”
And the policemen says: “Stand up! You pig!”
And the soldier says; “I’m standing up! I’m standing up right now!”
And the policman shot him dead any way.)

*(I thought my German was good enough to understand everything this guy was saying, but unfortunately there was some stuff he said that I could not for the life of me to decipher. My apologies to my German Professors.)